Peter Winograd (violin) joined the American String Quartet in 1990. He gave his first solo public per­for­mance at the age of 11, and at age 17 he was accepted as a scholar­ship student of Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School. Re­cog­nized early as an ex­cep­tion­ally prom­is­ing young artist, Winograd was a top prize winner in the 1988 Naumburg Inter­na­tional Violin Competition. He then made his New York debut to critical acclaim and has since appeared as a guest soloist with numerous orchestras and in recital across the country and abroad, including annual collaborative performances with cellist Andrés Díaz at the Florida Arts Chamber Music Festival. In 2002 Winograd performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Hartford Symphony; his father, Arthur Winograd, was the featured guest conductor. Winograd has been a mem­ber of the violin and chamber music faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and the Aspen Music School (where the American is Quartet-in-Residence) since 1990. Born into a gifted musical family, Winograd began his studies with his parents. His mother was a pro­fes­sion­al pianist, and his father was the founding cellist of the Juilliard Quartet and a conductor of the Hartford Symphony in Hartford, Connecticut, where Winograd grew up. He holds bach­e­lor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard. His wife, violinist Caterina Szepes, is a reg­u­lar participant in the Marlboro Festival and a member of the Metropolitan Opera Or­ches­tra. His violin is by Giovanni Maria del Bussetto (Cremona, 1675).

A founding member of the American String Quartet, Laurie Carney (violin) holds the distinction of performing quartets longer than any other woman in this elite field. The American String Quartet began concertizing while she was still an undergraduate at Juilliard. Apart from the Quartet, she has per­formed trios with her husband, cellist William Grubb, and pianist Anton Nel; duos with violist Michael Tree; and as an ensemble partner to such artists as Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, Salvatore Accardo, Cho-Liang Lin, Joshua Bell, Yefim Bronfman, Misha Dichter, Ralph Kirshbaum, Alain Meunier, and Frederica von Stade. Carney's concerto appearances include performing Mozart's Sin­fo­nia Con­cer­tan­te with the Bournemouth Symphony, Basque National Orchestra, and the Welsh National Orchestra. She gave the premiere of Gianpaolo Bracali’s Fantasia for violin and piano. Most recently, Robert Sirota composed his Violin Sonata No. 2 for her, and in addition to per­forming the premiere last spring, she will record the work later this season. A faculty artist at the Aspen Music Festival and School since 1974 and the Manhattan School of Music since 1984, Carney has held teaching positions at the Mannes College of Music, Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins Uni­ver­si­ty, University of Ne­bras­ka, University of Michigan, Shepherd School at Rice Uni­ver­si­ty, and the Taos School of Music. Her dedication to the development of young players brings frequent invitations to offer master classes, most recently in California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, and New Mexico. Carney is a member of a prodigious musical family: her father was a trumpeter and edu­ca­tor, her mother a concert pianist, and all three siblings are professional violinists. Her violin is by Carlo Tononi (Venice, 1720).

The Strad Magazine hailed Daniel Av­sha­lo­mov (viola) as “one of the finest oc­cu­pants of that chair, both in­stru­men­tally and mu­si­cal­ly, of any quartet now active.” Av­sha­lo­mov appears in recital and as a featured per­form­er and con­cer­to soloist at festivals across the country. Before joining the Quartet, Av­sha­lo­mov served as principal violist for the Aspen, Tanglewood, and Spoleto festival orchestras, as well as for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Opera Orchestra of New York, and American Composers Orchestra. He also was a founding mem­ber of the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble. A frequent guest artist with the Guarneri Quar­tet, he has performed with such groups as the Da Camera Society, Marin Music Fest, and La Musica di Asolo. He has shared the stage with Norbert Brainin (first violinist of the Amadeus Quartet), Misha Dichter, Bruno Giuranna (a founding member of I Musici), Maureen Forrester, the Juilliard and Tokyo Quartets, and the Bolshoi Ballet (as solo violist). Avshalomov’s articles appear in Notes and Strings; he has edited several viola works for publication and contributed to ASTA’s Playing and Teaching the Viola. He has been the subject of two articles in The Strad magazine and one in Classical Pulse. Avshalomov developed a lecture-demonstration, “Inside Passages,” first presented to the New York Viola Society in 2000. He performed the world premiere of Giampaolo Bracali’s Concerto per Viola, which RAI has broadcast in Europe, and the American premiere of Alessandro Rolla’s Esercizio3. On his CD, Three Generations Avshalomov, with pianists Robert McDonald and Pamela Pyle, Avshalomov performs works for viola and piano com­posed by his grandfather, father and brother. The CD was featured on NPR’s All Things Con­sidered. Avshalomov has been on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music since 1984 and at the Aspen School since 1976. His viola is by Andrea Amati (Cremona, 1568).

Since his Carnegie Hall debut in 1994, Wolfram Koes­sel (cello) has performed as a cham­ber musician, recitalist and soloist through­out the world. The Strad praised his “ex­cep­tion­al­ly attractive cello playing.” As a soloist he has per­formed con­certos through­out the United States as well as with Japan’s Osaka Symphony Orchestra and or­ches­tras in Ger­many and South America. He also has appeared often with the New York Meta­mor­pho­ses Or­ches­tra, which he cofounded in 1994. His collaborations include performances with leg­end­ary tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, distinguished dancer Mikhail Barysh­ni­kov, and cellist Yo Yo Ma, among many others. Koessel also appears with a wide range of ensembles, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Trio+ (a group he formed with violinist Yosuke Kawasaki and pianist Vadim Serebryani), which performs creative and collaborative concerts throug­hout Japan, the United States, and Canada. Koessel served as music director of the Mark Morris Dance Group from 2004 to 2008 and has toured extensively with the company both nationally and internationally, performing in several world premieres. In the fall of 2009, he was the featured performer in a new dance work, performing Beethoven’s Cello Sonata in C. He resides with his wife, pianist and writer J. Mae Barizo, and his daughter in Manhattan. His cello is by Giovanni Cavani (Modena, 1917).